All About The MTA
By Ilya Kreider
We are New Yorkers, we depend on the subway and other forms of transportation to get around the city. Whether it’s getting to school, to work, to the doctors, or to any other places around the city we depend on public transportation. If we didn’t have this we would all have to own a car, nobody would have any money at all from having to pay for owning their cars. And the roads would be all jammed up.
To make a point here I’m saying that we mostly rely on public transport to get around everywhere, even if the subway is always having problems. What I think that most of us don’t think about though is how safe all of these things are. Of course, you might spend 15 minutes in line for security at an airport and then get your bag pulled off of the conveyor belt for having a drop of water, but they don’t really do that for anything else.
The MTA logo
The subway system is home to over hundreds of people citywide. This is a problem because of high costs for homes and people not being able to get jobs across the city. There have also been quite a lot of debris falling from the tracks lately. And I’m not talking about your Arizona bottles and chip bags that you throw into the tracks. I’m talking about actual metal and wood beams that are holding up the trains and the tracks. They have been falling all over cars all around the city. Even not so long ago the big chunk of brick that fell off of the 7 line along Queens Blvd. The president of the MTA at the time - Andy Byford - just resolved it by saying he will put netting under the tracks. If all of that stuff is falling, what is going to hold up the trains? Are the trains themselves just going to be running on nets for the rest of the universe?
This shows the Union Square area where the M14 runs on bus-only lanes.
Sometimes on the weekends though, the MTA needs to do work to fix the subway. I think that the timing of these different projects is bad sometimes. This is one example from one of those scenarios where the overlapping construction projects really hurt the system. Just to get to 96th street on the Q line from Sunnyside, you would have to take the 7 to 61st street, then take an express back to Queensboro. There you get an N train and you have to take that to Lexington Avenue. From there you would have to take the 6 to Bleeker St where you could catch the F train. From there you would have to take that train up to 96th street. What I want to know though is why the F line is even running on the Q line? Exactly. That whole trip would be 4 transfers and it would take even more time because they have to run at slower speeds everywhere to make sure that the construction workers are safe.
Another thing that I should mention; you know how they put new and improved signals on the 7 and L line? Well on the 7 line most of those signals lost connection during a snowstorm, and the trains were disappearing on the map and other things like that, they basically couldn’t run any trains because they didn’t know how close the trains were.
Enough talking about the subway, now on to the other railways that the MTA owns, Metro-North, and the Long Island Railroad. They are also always having problems when there is a big storm and trees fall onto the tracks. There are the same problems that happen with the subway, except that it just doesn’t happen as often.
Another question I have is about the trains that were built in the 1920s. Why do those trains work better than the trains that we have today? I don’t hear about the old trains having the door problems and the emergency brakes being pulled for no reason. Why do people even find it funny to do this to the subway lines, it wastes people’s money in a way by having people pay their fare and then the lines can’t even run anymore so they swiped for no reason. You might say that $2.75 is nothing, but overall, it adds up. If this happens 20 times, that's over fifty dollars wasted, and I think that we’ve all had to experience that more than 20 times. Now, I think that I’m done with all the negative stuff about the MTA for now.
This shows a bus on the B46 route in Brooklyn
Set aside all of the flaws of the MTA there are also many good things about it. One thing is that they get over a million riders a day or swipes a day because people go to work and then they go back home. This brings a lot of money though. This means that they are making about three million dollars in a day and this is just the subway alone. After that, you still add up the money being made off of the buses and the regional lines that they own. After that, you end up with them making about 40 million dollars a day and they still need more money for their repairs. This is still a problem though because the government is giving them the funds that they need. This is because the government looks at the performance of the subway and is deciding that the MTA doesn’t deserve to have this money. The MTA has made apps for your phone that you can use for all forms of the MTA, you can use the app to track buses/trains but at the same time, you can also use the app for buying Long Island Railroad and Metro-North ticket.
The MTA even has its old red trains on the tracks sometimes. They put them out for the holidays and other special events. It’s been about 152 years since the first subway line was built and opened. They first called it the IRT which was the 9th avenue line and closed in 1940.
A model of the new R262 subway cars
The MTA has big plans for the future in terms of the subway. They plan to make new cars that are all connected from the front to the back of the train. This means that when you walk in between cars you are actually just walking down the train because you aren’t opening doors and getting the risk of falling into the tracks. It’s kind of like those double buses that run on the M14 and M15 bus routes. The MTA claims for them to be ready to be on the tracks by 2021 and then to be in use for passengers by the end of 2021. They have also added a lot of new buses to their fleet and gotten rid of a lot of the old ones. There is a really good thing about all these good things though and it’s that they are clean air hybrid electric buses. Their old buses ran on diesel fuel and were big polluters, these new buses are electric and charge with renewable energy causing the new buses to not endanger the Earth at all one bit. I think by now, the only diesel problem with the MTA is their construction trains, but that’s a big difference as for when the whole bus fleet was all diesel polluters.
The next thing that I would like to talk about is the resignation of the former president of the MTA, Andy Byford. This is very big for the MTA because he was given the task of fixing the MTA as the president of it. He started to move towards that by improving the on-time service and the number of train delays going down. The reason why he resigned though, is because of his relationship with Governor, Andrew Cuomo. Governor Cuomo wasn’t giving them the money that he needed for fixing the subway but at the same time, he was upset at the same time that the subway wasn’t being fixed. He had already tried to resign in October and it didn’t end up happening but this time it’s final. He submitted a resignation letter to make it final this time. As of February 21, 2020, he will no longer be the president of the MTA.
Michael Puma, from class 704 states, “I think that the MTA should have better supervision over people who enter the station without paying their fare.” I don’t think that people would have to do this though if the subway fares weren’t so high. Students cards only are provided with three swipes a day. It is with the intention of the child going to school, going somewhere after school, and then going home. But what if that activity after school involves you to swipe your card twice, in that case, you would then need 4 swipes, but where do you get that fourth swipe from, you don’t which is why you see a lot of kids jumping or going under the turnstiles. The subway line has changed throughout the years including the way you can pay for a ride. When the subway first started out you would need coins to pay for the subway but it didn’t really matter because the first-ever cost of the subway was $0.05 for a ride. Yes, you can blame inflation for the rise of the costs on inflation, but then why did the price only increase by $0.95 over the course of 82 years, but within the last 34 years, it’s increased $1.75 more. I don’t think inflation has done that. Don’t even get me started on the cost of express buses these days. A ride on an express bus is currently $6.75! Like, what even is this. The buses were first introduced in May of 2008 and they were using diesel fuel and a lot of gas but these days they are starting to use electric hybrid buses. Andy, an 8th grader at HPCMS states that “The MTA is terrible at all costs.”
Now that you know all about the MTA, what will you think next time that you swipe your MetroCard or have the bus spit it out of the little machine at the front.
We are New Yorkers, we depend on the subway and other forms of transportation to get around the city. Whether it’s getting to school, to work, to the doctors, or to any other places around the city we depend on public transportation. If we didn’t have this we would all have to own a car, nobody would have any money at all from having to pay for owning their cars. And the roads would be all jammed up.
To make a point here I’m saying that we mostly rely on public transport to get around everywhere, even if the subway is always having problems. What I think that most of us don’t think about though is how safe all of these things are. Of course, you might spend 15 minutes in line for security at an airport and then get your bag pulled off of the conveyor belt for having a drop of water, but they don’t really do that for anything else.
The MTA logo
The subway system is home to over hundreds of people citywide. This is a problem because of high costs for homes and people not being able to get jobs across the city. There have also been quite a lot of debris falling from the tracks lately. And I’m not talking about your Arizona bottles and chip bags that you throw into the tracks. I’m talking about actual metal and wood beams that are holding up the trains and the tracks. They have been falling all over cars all around the city. Even not so long ago the big chunk of brick that fell off of the 7 line along Queens Blvd. The president of the MTA at the time - Andy Byford - just resolved it by saying he will put netting under the tracks. If all of that stuff is falling, what is going to hold up the trains? Are the trains themselves just going to be running on nets for the rest of the universe?
A conductor checking side to side to make sure nothing is caught in the doors and everything is all good as the train departs the station.
Another thing that I want to talk about is the constant delays on the subway. Andrew Takahashi, an HPCMS student from class 702 says that the MTA is, “Bad because there are a lot of delays.” The MTA may be saying that the on-time performance and the numbers of delays are down, but honestly, I don’t believe that. Every single day there are multiple problems across the system. Signal problems, and then tons of traffic mess up the system as it is. The traffic problem ends up blocking the buses. They are trying to get more trains running and closer together, which is just making things going a lot slower than it could be going.
Another thing that I want to talk about is the constant delays on the subway. Andrew Takahashi, an HPCMS student from class 702 says that the MTA is, “Bad because there are a lot of delays.” The MTA may be saying that the on-time performance and the numbers of delays are down, but honestly, I don’t believe that. Every single day there are multiple problems across the system. Signal problems, and then tons of traffic mess up the system as it is. The traffic problem ends up blocking the buses. They are trying to get more trains running and closer together, which is just making things going a lot slower than it could be going.
This shows the Union Square area where the M14 runs on bus-only lanes.
Sometimes on the weekends though, the MTA needs to do work to fix the subway. I think that the timing of these different projects is bad sometimes. This is one example from one of those scenarios where the overlapping construction projects really hurt the system. Just to get to 96th street on the Q line from Sunnyside, you would have to take the 7 to 61st street, then take an express back to Queensboro. There you get an N train and you have to take that to Lexington Avenue. From there you would have to take the 6 to Bleeker St where you could catch the F train. From there you would have to take that train up to 96th street. What I want to know though is why the F line is even running on the Q line? Exactly. That whole trip would be 4 transfers and it would take even more time because they have to run at slower speeds everywhere to make sure that the construction workers are safe.
Another thing that I should mention; you know how they put new and improved signals on the 7 and L line? Well on the 7 line most of those signals lost connection during a snowstorm, and the trains were disappearing on the map and other things like that, they basically couldn’t run any trains because they didn’t know how close the trains were.
Enough talking about the subway, now on to the other railways that the MTA owns, Metro-North, and the Long Island Railroad. They are also always having problems when there is a big storm and trees fall onto the tracks. There are the same problems that happen with the subway, except that it just doesn’t happen as often.
Another question I have is about the trains that were built in the 1920s. Why do those trains work better than the trains that we have today? I don’t hear about the old trains having the door problems and the emergency brakes being pulled for no reason. Why do people even find it funny to do this to the subway lines, it wastes people’s money in a way by having people pay their fare and then the lines can’t even run anymore so they swiped for no reason. You might say that $2.75 is nothing, but overall, it adds up. If this happens 20 times, that's over fifty dollars wasted, and I think that we’ve all had to experience that more than 20 times. Now, I think that I’m done with all the negative stuff about the MTA for now.
This shows a bus on the B46 route in Brooklyn
Set aside all of the flaws of the MTA there are also many good things about it. One thing is that they get over a million riders a day or swipes a day because people go to work and then they go back home. This brings a lot of money though. This means that they are making about three million dollars in a day and this is just the subway alone. After that, you still add up the money being made off of the buses and the regional lines that they own. After that, you end up with them making about 40 million dollars a day and they still need more money for their repairs. This is still a problem though because the government is giving them the funds that they need. This is because the government looks at the performance of the subway and is deciding that the MTA doesn’t deserve to have this money. The MTA has made apps for your phone that you can use for all forms of the MTA, you can use the app to track buses/trains but at the same time, you can also use the app for buying Long Island Railroad and Metro-North ticket.
The MTA even has its old red trains on the tracks sometimes. They put them out for the holidays and other special events. It’s been about 152 years since the first subway line was built and opened. They first called it the IRT which was the 9th avenue line and closed in 1940.
A model of the new R262 subway cars
The MTA has big plans for the future in terms of the subway. They plan to make new cars that are all connected from the front to the back of the train. This means that when you walk in between cars you are actually just walking down the train because you aren’t opening doors and getting the risk of falling into the tracks. It’s kind of like those double buses that run on the M14 and M15 bus routes. The MTA claims for them to be ready to be on the tracks by 2021 and then to be in use for passengers by the end of 2021. They have also added a lot of new buses to their fleet and gotten rid of a lot of the old ones. There is a really good thing about all these good things though and it’s that they are clean air hybrid electric buses. Their old buses ran on diesel fuel and were big polluters, these new buses are electric and charge with renewable energy causing the new buses to not endanger the Earth at all one bit. I think by now, the only diesel problem with the MTA is their construction trains, but that’s a big difference as for when the whole bus fleet was all diesel polluters.
The next thing that I would like to talk about is the resignation of the former president of the MTA, Andy Byford. This is very big for the MTA because he was given the task of fixing the MTA as the president of it. He started to move towards that by improving the on-time service and the number of train delays going down. The reason why he resigned though, is because of his relationship with Governor, Andrew Cuomo. Governor Cuomo wasn’t giving them the money that he needed for fixing the subway but at the same time, he was upset at the same time that the subway wasn’t being fixed. He had already tried to resign in October and it didn’t end up happening but this time it’s final. He submitted a resignation letter to make it final this time. As of February 21, 2020, he will no longer be the president of the MTA.
Michael Puma, from class 704 states, “I think that the MTA should have better supervision over people who enter the station without paying their fare.” I don’t think that people would have to do this though if the subway fares weren’t so high. Students cards only are provided with three swipes a day. It is with the intention of the child going to school, going somewhere after school, and then going home. But what if that activity after school involves you to swipe your card twice, in that case, you would then need 4 swipes, but where do you get that fourth swipe from, you don’t which is why you see a lot of kids jumping or going under the turnstiles. The subway line has changed throughout the years including the way you can pay for a ride. When the subway first started out you would need coins to pay for the subway but it didn’t really matter because the first-ever cost of the subway was $0.05 for a ride. Yes, you can blame inflation for the rise of the costs on inflation, but then why did the price only increase by $0.95 over the course of 82 years, but within the last 34 years, it’s increased $1.75 more. I don’t think inflation has done that. Don’t even get me started on the cost of express buses these days. A ride on an express bus is currently $6.75! Like, what even is this. The buses were first introduced in May of 2008 and they were using diesel fuel and a lot of gas but these days they are starting to use electric hybrid buses. Andy, an 8th grader at HPCMS states that “The MTA is terrible at all costs.”
Now that you know all about the MTA, what will you think next time that you swipe your MetroCard or have the bus spit it out of the little machine at the front.
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